David Perkins: Hitler's Astrologer

Suddenly Elaine heard a cough behind some bushes beside the road.

“ Who’s there ?”

Silence.

“Who’s there? If you’re after food, I have none.” Elaine looked to the direction of the cough. “I’m looking for food also.”

A rustling sound came from the woods and a young boy emerged wearing a tattered soldier’s uniform of a private. His malnutrition was pronounced and his pale skin suggested another illness.

“It’s not Frau Hessler!” He shouted in the direction further down the road.

A group of uniformed boys then emerged from down the road. They were all aged seventeen or under, except for one who was around twenty. The eldest had the uniform of sergeant, and spoke in a raspy voice.

“Fear not, Fraulein, the boys thought you were someone else, and didn’t want to be seen.”

“Someone else?” Elaine was surprised and a bit disappointed that apparently someone else had the same appearance as her.

“Frau Hessler, our teacher.” The boy she first saw blurted out.

“And she looks like me?”

“No.” A group of boys chimed. “You’re much prettier.” Another one added.

“Why, thank-you.” Elaine had not heard a compliment for almost three years. “And why did you not want to be seen by her?”

The sergeant walked up and quietly whispered in her ear. “They are ashamed.” Then he took two steps back and clicked his heels. Sergeant Hans Heyn, at your service, Fraulein!”

“Elaine Krafft.” Elaine said while looking at each boy. “And where is your company going?”

Each boy looked at one another. Finally Hans spoke. “We’ve been trying to decide that for the past couple of days.

“Decide what?”

“To go east towards the Russians or west towards the Americans.”

The rumbles of explosions on both horizons seem to reveal that either choice offered pretty much the same options.

“I see.” Elaine said looking at each boy again. “And where are you leaning at the moment?”

Hans had a blank look on his face. He was a plumber’s apprentice and had no idea of the political implications of the decisions. He could only see the war as a soldier. “We hate both sides.”

“Well if there is hate on both sides, then perhaps the way to choose is with family.”

“Family? I have no family!” Hans said in a tone that showed his grieving was over.

“Alright.” Elaine pointed at the burning town nearest to them. “If you have no family there, or here … do you have any family in Russia ?” She pointed to the east.

All of the boys looked at one another and shook their heads.

“Does anyone have any family in America ? Elaine pointed to the west.

Something strange happened in the minds of each boy. It was as if this was the question they needed to ask several days ago.

“I have a great uncle in Chicago.” The smallest boy first broke the silence. Then, one by one each boy contributed the various forms of relatives they had.

“…a sister in Minnesota.”

“…an aunt in Los Angeles.”

“…a cousin in Baltimore.”

“Do you have any relatives in America?” Hans asked Elaine, as if the settle the matter.

“No, actually I don’t.” For some reason all the boys laughed. A formation of American fighters off to the south reminded them the war was not over yet.

Hans then took the initiative. “Men, let us pack up and head to Wolfsburg.” He gave his last order as a German soldier pointing his hand to the west.

One of the boys collapsed emotionally in the realization that his ordeal was over, although he still did not know the outcome. Elaine walked over to him.

“What’s your name?” She used the tone learned from Birgit that seemed to excite and arouse so many men.

“Karl. Karl Ernst Ruggermeyer.”

“Really? I married a man named Karl Ernst.”

“And where is your husband now?” Ruggermeyer asked innocently.

Elaine pointed to the sky.

The group began to walk towards Wolfsburg in silence.

“What did your husband do?” Ruggermeyer asked.

“He was an astrologer.”

“An astrologer? That’s an odd profession!”

“Indeed it is, indeed it is.”

Curious of one in such a profession, the young boy thought of one who would study the stars. “What was your husband like ?”

Elaine grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “You know Karl Ernst, I don’t know now. I really don’t know.”

“Do you have a picture of him, Frau Krafft?

Elaine thought for a moment, then reached into her worn pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “This is the only thing I have from him.” She handed it to the young Karl Ernst Ruggermeyer, who unfolded the aged paper carefully.

In faded blue ink, an array of hand drawn astrological symbols, geometric angles and half circles covered the paper on both sides. Torn from a book, in the middle of the page were four lines of text, with two arrows leading out of the word “cities” pointing at two dates handwritten on the page:

August 6, 1945 and August 9, 1945.

The text read:

Near the gates and within two cities

There will be scourges the likes of which was never seen,

Famine within plague, people & steel melting,

Crying to the great immortal God for relief.

Dear reader,

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Copyright (C) 2018 David Bryant Perkins

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2018 by Creativia

Published 2018 by Creativia

Cover art by Cover Mint

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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